Evidence

Citation

Munday, R. (2022). Evidence (11th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The eleventh edition (March 2022), in Oxford's Core Text series, has about 540 pages of text: a short set of introductory remarks on the law of evidence followed by 13 chapters, with tables of statutes, statutory instruments and international instruments. Roderick Munday is Reader Emeritus in Law at the University of Cambridge and Fellow Emeritus of Peterhouse, and also the author of Cross and Tapper on Evidence. The publisher describes the book as a concise introduction to the core of the subject that analyses both historic and current issues, in an engaging style. Each chapter opens with a summary of its contents and ends with self-test questions, and guidance on answering them is available online. This edition adds new cases and the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020, more examples of identification evidence drawn from social media, and discussion of technological change such as the encryption systems used by criminals and terrorists.

Introductory remarks on the law of evidence

About twelve pages that introduce the subject before the first chapter.

Chapter 1: Relevance and admissibility of evidence

One of the longest chapters, at about fifty pages, on the threshold questions of what makes evidence relevant and when relevant evidence may nevertheless be excluded.

Chapter 2: Presumptions and the burden of proof

Who must prove what, and to what standard: the legal and evidential burdens and the presumptions that shift or ease them.

Chapter 3: Witnesses: competence, compellability, and various privileges

Who may give evidence, who can be required to, and the privileges that allow information to be withheld; legal advice and public interest immunity are among the book's recurring terms.

Chapter 4: The course of the trial

The conduct of the trial and the questioning of witnesses, including examination and cross-examination.

Chapter 5: Witnesses' previous consistent statements and the remnants of the rule against narrative

When a witness's earlier statements consistent with their testimony may be put before the court, and what remains of the old rule excluding them.

Chapters 6–8: Character and credibility; Evidence of the defendant's good character in criminal cases; Evidence of the defendant's bad character

Three chapters on character evidence. Chapter 6 covers character as it bears on credibility, Chapter 7 the defendant's good character, and Chapter 8, the longest in the book at about seventy-five pages, the admission of a defendant's bad character under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and its "gateways".

Chapter 9: The opinion rule and the presentation of expert evidence

The general exclusion of opinion evidence and the exception for experts, with the rules on how expert evidence is presented.

Chapter 10: The rule against hearsay

Another long chapter, of nearly seventy pages, on the hearsay rule and its statutory and common law exceptions.

Chapters 11–12: Confessions; Drawing adverse inferences from a defendant's omissions, lies, or false alibis

The admissibility of confessions, centred on the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), and the inferences a jury may draw from a defendant's omissions, lies or false alibis.

Chapter 13: Identification evidence

The final chapter covers the special risks of identification evidence and the safeguards around it, now including identification from social media sources such as Facebook.

Key Concepts

Foundations (Introduction, Chapters 1–2)

• Relevance: the basic requirement that evidence must tend to prove or disprove a fact in issue.
• Admissibility: the rules that may exclude even relevant evidence.
• Legal and evidential burdens: the duty to prove a fact, and the duty to raise an issue for consideration.

Witnesses and trial (Chapters 3–5)

• Competence and compellability: whether a person may, and whether they must, give evidence.
• Privilege: the right to withhold certain information, such as communications with a lawyer.
• Previous consistent statements: a witness's earlier statements that match their testimony.

Character and opinion (Chapters 6–9)

• Good character direction: the guidance given to a jury about a defendant with no previous convictions.
• Bad character gateways: the statutory routes by which a defendant's misconduct may be admitted.
• Expert evidence: the exception to the opinion rule for those with specialist knowledge.

Hearsay, confessions and identification (Chapters 10–13)

• Hearsay: out-of-court statements tendered as evidence of their truth, and the exceptions that admit them.
• Confessions: admissions by a defendant and the grounds for excluding them under PACE.
• Adverse inferences: conclusions a jury may draw from a defendant's omissions, lies or false alibis.
• Identification evidence: evidence identifying the defendant, and the warnings needed because it can be mistaken.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Concise but analytical. The publisher's description stresses careful analysis of historic and current issues, and two lecturers quoted by the publisher praise the balance between essential law and analysis without over-simplification (Jan Holloway, Aberystwyth University) and its academic weight and depth of analysis (Susan Lazer, University of Huddersfield).
• An engaging style. The publisher presents the book as one that demystifies a traditionally intimidating subject, with a writing style intended to hold the reader's interest.
• Built for study. Chapter-opening summaries help navigation, and the end-of-chapter self-test questions, with online guidance on answering them, support revision and problem practice.
• An author with a major practitioner text behind him. Munday also writes Cross and Tapper on Evidence, one of the large reference works on the subject, which lends authority to this shorter book.

Limitations

• Criminal evidence dominates. Several chapters (7, 8, 11, 12) are explicitly about criminal cases, and the largest chapters deal with bad character and hearsay. Courses with substantial civil evidence content should check coverage against a text that treats civil proceedings expressly.
• "Concise" is relative. At more than 600 pages in all, the book is compact only by comparison with the large reference works; it is not a quick overview.
• Edition date. The eleventh edition dates from 2022. Later legislation and Court of Appeal decisions, which come frequently in evidence law, will need to be checked.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is one of two concise main textbooks in this course list. Andrew Choo's Evidence covers similar core topics, including relevance, burdens, confessions, silence, identification, character, hearsay and experts, with attention to the influence of the European Convention and the Human Rights Act; students can choose between the two by style. Keane and McKeown's The Modern Law of Evidence is a fuller course textbook covering both criminal and civil proceedings, useful when a module needs more detail or civil evidence. Evidence: Law and Context by Claire McGourlay and co-authors sets the rules against their political, theoretical and policy background, a good complement for essay questions.

For depth, Ian Dennis's The Law of Evidence is an advanced, principle-based study of the subject, and Paul Roberts's Roberts & Zuckerman's Criminal Evidence evaluates the criminal evidence rules against an explicit normative framework of accurate fact-finding and fairness. Both suit dissertation work or a second reading after this book.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at undergraduate law students taking evidence, typically after criminal law and with some knowledge of the English legal system and criminal procedure. No prior study of evidence is needed.

A practical plan:

• Begin with the introductory remarks and Chapters 1–2. Relevance, admissibility and the burden of proof underlie every later topic.
• Core for most criminal evidence modules: Chapters 8 (bad character), 10 (hearsay), 11 (confessions), 12 (adverse inferences) and 13 (identification). These are long, heavily statutory chapters; read them with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and PACE open beside the text.
• Witnesses and trial: Chapters 3–5 can be read as the lectures reach them; Chapters 6–7 should be read together with Chapter 8.
• Expert evidence: Chapter 9 is essential where the syllabus covers forensic science or expert witnesses.

Use the chapter summaries to preview each topic, and attempt the self-test questions before checking the online guidance. Evidence law is learned through problems: after each chapter, work through a past examination question and identify which rules and gateways apply. Check recent Court of Appeal decisions on bad character and hearsay, which change regularly.